ABM Strategy: The Ideal Prospecting for Long and Complex Sales
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:53 am
If your company has a long sales process, sells high-value products and services, or deals with many decision makers during a negotiation, you need to know about the ABM strategy.
Key takeaways from this article:
The ABM strategy has more focus and greater capacity for prospecting personalization, which is why sales conversion rates tend to be much higher when compared to inbound marketing strategies .
To start the ABM strategy, you need to know exactly what type of customer represents an engaged and profitable customer for the company, that is, you need to have a perfectly defined ICP .
In addition to marketing, the ABM strategy can also be focused on customer prospecting, loyalty and reactivation of inactive customers.
Creating personalized content is crucial to the success of ABM prospecting. At this stage, you can send freebies, create exclusive events, and send highly personalized prospecting emails .
The most appropriate indicators for analyzing ABM prospecting are, among others: cost per generated opportunity, ROI, average ticket, sales cycle and closing rate. Learn about the main sales indicators in: Guide: Sales KPIs
Also known as Account-Based Marketing, ABM is an account-based marketing strategy that can generate, on average, 208% more revenue for marketing efforts .
The ABM strategy proposal is very different from the most common prospecting and marketing formats found in the market.
Instead of launching mass campaigns to reach as many people as possible who are interested in your products, the ABM strategy defines a target account in advance, and from there, builds a highly personalized strategy to attract and start a relationship with this customer.
Personalization has been a determining aspect in sales and marketing approaches to generate new business, and for this reason, the ABM strategy gains great prominence within the possible tactics that a company can use to expand its sales.
Continue reading to learn more about the ABM strategy and how to apply it to prospecting to obtain more significant results.
What is ABM strategy?
ABM, or Account-Based Marketing, is a marketing strategy that aims to create campaigns targeted at specific accounts instead of launching generic campaigns aimed at a large audience. To do so, an in-depth study of the needs and behavior of specific accounts must be carried out, and campaigns and content must be developed with a higher degree of personalization.
The accounts that are predefined to start this strategy are highly qualified and have the potential to contribute a large portion of sales revenue. It is as if a company were equipping itself with the best tools to catch the “big fish”, instead of casting a net to catch the largest number of small fish in the pond.
With more focus and greater ability to customize prospecting, sales conversion rates tend to be much higher when compared to inbound marketing strategies, for example.
On the other hand, starting a campaign based on the ABM strategy is not easy at all, since more resources are required than an inbound campaign, and that is exactly why the defined accounts must represent large and valuable customers for the organization.
Read also: Account-Based Marketing: what it is and how to put it into practice in B2B sales
How does the ABM strategy work?
One of the goals of ABM is to personalize marketing campaigns and sales interactions to the highest level. To do this, you first need to know exactly what type of customer represents an engaged and profitable customer for your company.
In other words, it is necessary to have a perfectly defined ICP .
This allows you to identify the contacts closest to this profile in your lead database. After locating them, the marketing and sales teams work together to delve into the customer's reality to create approaches and content to attract them through value generation.
By following these principles, the ABM strategy can be replicated to meet different objectives. In this article, we will focus mainly on ABM prospecting and how your company can win large accounts with it, but remember that you can also use it to:
up-selling and cross-selling ;
reactivation of inactive customers ;
loyalty;
customer engagement and satisfaction .
What is ABM customer prospecting?
ABM customer prospecting is a prospecting technique based on the fundamentals of turkey mobile phone numbers database Account-Based Marketing. In other words, ABM prospecting aims to provide more direction and personalization to prospecting approaches, optimize sales team productivity, reduce the sales cycle, and increase the ROI of efforts, which are specifically geared towards strategic accounts.
Among the objectives of ABM in prospecting, the importance of making the lead feel like they are having a private conversation with the organization also stands out.
C-level or enterprise decision-makers, in particular, are the ones most bombarded by prospecting approaches. In this sense, an approach with a high degree of customization stands out, delights and attracts these leads more easily.
Thus, with ABM prospecting it is possible to obtain higher prospecting success rates, generate value more quickly, promote a closer relationship right at the beginning of interactions and save time approaching customers who are really interested in your business.
Discover 5 more tips for prospecting new clients:
How to do ABM prospecting?
Now that you know the concept of ABM strategy and how it can guide prospecting, check out a brief step-by-step guide to implementing ABM customer prospecting in your company.
1. Select the accounts you will prospect
You should already have a well-defined ICP . This is a fundamental marketing tool for any marketing and sales action of your organization.
Likewise, the information you found about your ICP will also guide the selection of strategic accounts you will prospect.
Filter your lead base according to this information and make a list of customers that accurately match your ICP.
Remember that ABM strategy focuses on the highest level of personalization, which is directly linked to higher investment costs and efforts from marketing and sales teams. Therefore, be careful not to create large-volume lists and deviate from the real objective of ABM prospecting.
2. Study each account in depth
At this point, you need to understand the specifics of the account, looking for information about:
organizational structure;
operation;
suppliers;
main customers;
company challenges;
historical;
mission, vision and values;
operating market;
external environmental factors that impact the company;
professionals in decision-making positions.
This is the most decisive stage in prospecting ABM clients, because the more assertive the collection of information and pain points of these accounts, the higher the prospecting success rates will be, since the approach has a greater capacity for personalization.
3. Create personalized content
Here, you start putting what you've learned about your chosen account into practice to attract them.
To do this, it is essential to create personalized content. Its formats will vary according to the customer's preferences, which you identified in the previous step.
Overall, you will be able to create:
exclusive events with defined accounts;
sending gifts;
exclusive landing pages;
personalization of emails and ads;
sending direct mail;
in-person product demonstrations;
blog content targeted at a specific segment.
Use customer knowledge to build and customize the prospecting and lead nurturing steps, and define the best channels to impact leads.
Also check out: Hyperpersonalization in sales: what it is, why it’s important and 3 steps to implement it
4. Measure the results
As is done in other prospecting and marketing strategies, it is necessary to measure and analyze the results.
However, with ABM customer prospecting, the metrics that should be monitored in prospecting are different from those we usually track in inbound strategies, for example, which are normally directed at the volume of leads generated and conversions between sales stages.
Here, we need to focus on the performance of a single prospecting, for this reason, the most appropriate indicators to analyze ABM prospecting are:
Key takeaways from this article:
The ABM strategy has more focus and greater capacity for prospecting personalization, which is why sales conversion rates tend to be much higher when compared to inbound marketing strategies .
To start the ABM strategy, you need to know exactly what type of customer represents an engaged and profitable customer for the company, that is, you need to have a perfectly defined ICP .
In addition to marketing, the ABM strategy can also be focused on customer prospecting, loyalty and reactivation of inactive customers.
Creating personalized content is crucial to the success of ABM prospecting. At this stage, you can send freebies, create exclusive events, and send highly personalized prospecting emails .
The most appropriate indicators for analyzing ABM prospecting are, among others: cost per generated opportunity, ROI, average ticket, sales cycle and closing rate. Learn about the main sales indicators in: Guide: Sales KPIs
Also known as Account-Based Marketing, ABM is an account-based marketing strategy that can generate, on average, 208% more revenue for marketing efforts .
The ABM strategy proposal is very different from the most common prospecting and marketing formats found in the market.
Instead of launching mass campaigns to reach as many people as possible who are interested in your products, the ABM strategy defines a target account in advance, and from there, builds a highly personalized strategy to attract and start a relationship with this customer.
Personalization has been a determining aspect in sales and marketing approaches to generate new business, and for this reason, the ABM strategy gains great prominence within the possible tactics that a company can use to expand its sales.
Continue reading to learn more about the ABM strategy and how to apply it to prospecting to obtain more significant results.
What is ABM strategy?
ABM, or Account-Based Marketing, is a marketing strategy that aims to create campaigns targeted at specific accounts instead of launching generic campaigns aimed at a large audience. To do so, an in-depth study of the needs and behavior of specific accounts must be carried out, and campaigns and content must be developed with a higher degree of personalization.
The accounts that are predefined to start this strategy are highly qualified and have the potential to contribute a large portion of sales revenue. It is as if a company were equipping itself with the best tools to catch the “big fish”, instead of casting a net to catch the largest number of small fish in the pond.
With more focus and greater ability to customize prospecting, sales conversion rates tend to be much higher when compared to inbound marketing strategies, for example.
On the other hand, starting a campaign based on the ABM strategy is not easy at all, since more resources are required than an inbound campaign, and that is exactly why the defined accounts must represent large and valuable customers for the organization.
Read also: Account-Based Marketing: what it is and how to put it into practice in B2B sales
How does the ABM strategy work?
One of the goals of ABM is to personalize marketing campaigns and sales interactions to the highest level. To do this, you first need to know exactly what type of customer represents an engaged and profitable customer for your company.
In other words, it is necessary to have a perfectly defined ICP .
This allows you to identify the contacts closest to this profile in your lead database. After locating them, the marketing and sales teams work together to delve into the customer's reality to create approaches and content to attract them through value generation.
By following these principles, the ABM strategy can be replicated to meet different objectives. In this article, we will focus mainly on ABM prospecting and how your company can win large accounts with it, but remember that you can also use it to:
up-selling and cross-selling ;
reactivation of inactive customers ;
loyalty;
customer engagement and satisfaction .
What is ABM customer prospecting?
ABM customer prospecting is a prospecting technique based on the fundamentals of turkey mobile phone numbers database Account-Based Marketing. In other words, ABM prospecting aims to provide more direction and personalization to prospecting approaches, optimize sales team productivity, reduce the sales cycle, and increase the ROI of efforts, which are specifically geared towards strategic accounts.
Among the objectives of ABM in prospecting, the importance of making the lead feel like they are having a private conversation with the organization also stands out.
C-level or enterprise decision-makers, in particular, are the ones most bombarded by prospecting approaches. In this sense, an approach with a high degree of customization stands out, delights and attracts these leads more easily.
Thus, with ABM prospecting it is possible to obtain higher prospecting success rates, generate value more quickly, promote a closer relationship right at the beginning of interactions and save time approaching customers who are really interested in your business.
Discover 5 more tips for prospecting new clients:
How to do ABM prospecting?
Now that you know the concept of ABM strategy and how it can guide prospecting, check out a brief step-by-step guide to implementing ABM customer prospecting in your company.
1. Select the accounts you will prospect
You should already have a well-defined ICP . This is a fundamental marketing tool for any marketing and sales action of your organization.
Likewise, the information you found about your ICP will also guide the selection of strategic accounts you will prospect.
Filter your lead base according to this information and make a list of customers that accurately match your ICP.
Remember that ABM strategy focuses on the highest level of personalization, which is directly linked to higher investment costs and efforts from marketing and sales teams. Therefore, be careful not to create large-volume lists and deviate from the real objective of ABM prospecting.
2. Study each account in depth
At this point, you need to understand the specifics of the account, looking for information about:
organizational structure;
operation;
suppliers;
main customers;
company challenges;
historical;
mission, vision and values;
operating market;
external environmental factors that impact the company;
professionals in decision-making positions.
This is the most decisive stage in prospecting ABM clients, because the more assertive the collection of information and pain points of these accounts, the higher the prospecting success rates will be, since the approach has a greater capacity for personalization.
3. Create personalized content
Here, you start putting what you've learned about your chosen account into practice to attract them.
To do this, it is essential to create personalized content. Its formats will vary according to the customer's preferences, which you identified in the previous step.
Overall, you will be able to create:
exclusive events with defined accounts;
sending gifts;
exclusive landing pages;
personalization of emails and ads;
sending direct mail;
in-person product demonstrations;
blog content targeted at a specific segment.
Use customer knowledge to build and customize the prospecting and lead nurturing steps, and define the best channels to impact leads.
Also check out: Hyperpersonalization in sales: what it is, why it’s important and 3 steps to implement it
4. Measure the results
As is done in other prospecting and marketing strategies, it is necessary to measure and analyze the results.
However, with ABM customer prospecting, the metrics that should be monitored in prospecting are different from those we usually track in inbound strategies, for example, which are normally directed at the volume of leads generated and conversions between sales stages.
Here, we need to focus on the performance of a single prospecting, for this reason, the most appropriate indicators to analyze ABM prospecting are: